Community seeks to provide family a special experience

Nocona is helping make a wish come true for Kevin Villasenor, a seven-year-old diagnosed with stage four Diffuse Intrinsic Pontine Glioma.

The seven-year-old boy is the son of Reyes and Annabella Villasenor and is now a second grader at Nocona Elementary and is known to make people laugh.

“He is kind of shy at first, but after you get to know him a little bit he is kind of the class clown and funny,” said Stefanie Reed, a kindergarten teacher at Nocona Elementary.

The tumor is an extremely rare pediatric brain tumor that typically strikes between the ages of five and seven and infiltrates the brain stem. Villsaneor was a first grader at Nocona Elementary when he was diagnosed in May 2018.

“He was diagnosed in May 2018 and at that time, I understood about a year was the prognosis, but during the summer he did one round of chemo and radiation treatments and the tumor did shrink. I am unsure if that bought him more time, but he is no longer undergoing treatments,” explained Reed.